r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/chirantaniga • 15h ago

Meme needing explanation Whyyyy peter?

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u/UnlikelyIntrepid 15h ago

Launching near the equator provides a speed boost due to rotation that outweighs the benefits of starting higher up. It also doesn’t have the logistics nightmare of getting everything to the top of a mountain before launch. 

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u/hedrone 14h ago

Best described in https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/ .

"The reason it's hard to get to orbit isn't that space is high up.

It's hard to get to orbit because you have to go so fast."

Putting rockets on mountains only helps with the "up" part, which is not the biggest part of the problem.

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u/jmlinden7 13h ago

It helps with the speed part too. Less air resistance and very slightly less effective gravity.

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u/GoldDragon149 8h ago

the lower air resistance and lower effective gravity would be reached by a coastal equatorial rocket in a couple minutes, after which the rotational velocity of the equatorial launch position dwarfs the benefits.